I grew up with german shepherds all my childhood and most of my shorter adult life. Before we had gotten our CC we were torn between getting another GSD or a CC after doing some research on the breed so I feel your pain! It is a tough decision. We went with the corso in the end. Odin is only a little over 3 months but I can already see many many differences between him and my past shepherd pups in how we have to train. I unfortunately have very little knowledge on CCs as adults since he is our first, but I can tell you the differences I do see now as puppies and others can tell you more about CCs as they progress.
GSDs that I have had in the past were always very people pleasing. Quick, easy to train. Their training would usually be pretty reliable. They had strong prey drive of course, and they really do excel in sports. I am sure you heard a lot about GSDs from the forum you were on.
Our experience with our CC is similar thus far except more effort is required. Not because he is not intelligent, it seems to be the opposite. He gets bored easily when repeating the same task over and over, he needs more mental stimulation than our GSDs did during training. If you train him in a way to keep him from being bored he will learn, quickly! Odin will stop play to follow a command already, like when playing chase with his min pin sister he will sit on a dime. But it's all about keeping him entertained throughout our exercises. I mix things up, he does a little basic obedience, then a little nose work for treats hidden around, then a short play session, back to obedience, etc. He was in basic puppy classes but his trainer wants us to just go straight to the more advanced classes after only one class because he is too smart and was bored. The other dogs don't move through quick enough and it's just too much repetition when doing the same thing over and over for an hour. He started getting bored and wouldn't complete his tasks towards the end out of frustration. They believe he will be able to excel and move on to more advanced obedience if we move quicker with him, I agree. I think he would do fantastic in obedience trials later on when he is a less rambunctious puppy - he is after all only 13 weeks old!
Overall for us a CC was a good choice. The GSD would have been a bit easier but we didn't just want easy. We wanted a smart companion with his own mind. Depending on the effort/time/method you want to put in you may do better with a GSD because they are a lot less stubborn and easier to handle for a first time intensive training project from what we have experienced with our CC vs GSDs. We wanted a smart companion that would some day make us proud and be worth the extra effort, that is exactly what we feel we have with Odin in our short time with him. His personality is unlike any of our other dogs.
People who only deal with CCs through a rescue type scenario, their opinions I would take with a grain of salt. MANY dogs in rescue come with behavioral issues not only the CC. There are always going to be bad examples of every type depending on their upbringing and breeding. I can tell you of many GSDs I knew with aggression issues, I can even tell you about poodles with severe aggression. These problems were the faults of their owners or bad breeding and is something that can be avoided by just finding a GOOD breeder and training them well. They are great dogs, they just require great people around them who want to see them succeed to be able to shine.
Please keep in mind I am just a beginner with CCs, my experiences may not be typical and Odin very well could change entirely as he grows older. Hopefully some others will speak up about their experiences!
Hope this helped a little though, best luck whatever breed you chose in the end!
